Just wanted to introduce myself... I'll be a lurker mainly, but more than
happy to chat with extropians, transhumanists, cryonicists and "life-ists" in
general -- then make a brief comment about the misprep of Extropy issue.
(Please feel free to introduce yourself to me at my personal address... don't
thing the list would appreciate a long neverending "Hi Ed, welcome to the
list" string !)

I'm Ed from Philly... been interested in "cryonics related issues" for about 8
years after reading "Engines of Creation" and then "Man into Superman" - -
Prior to going "trans" I'd been interested in humanism from the age of 13,
when as a "then" Orthodox Jew I read Freud's "Moses and Monotheism" and gained
the courage to get myself in trouble. Hobbies are Jazz organ and travel
(spend lot's of time in Tokyo) and contemporary Japan related stuff (not Zen
and flower arranging !)... I do curriculum design and ESL. I'm fascinated in
social and psychological issues related to immortalist philosophies - - for
example, given unlimited lifespan how man will have to redefine his/her vision
of himself, family, what the new lifespan psychology will be and even the role
fantasy and virtual reality might play in a distant future (i.e. would humans
choose to create physical world of their dreams, or use technologies to create
limitless alternative realities - - and how this would effect how humans
interact in the future) - - and finally the "psychology of fatalism" and the
way in which it shaped modern society and how/whether future humanity will be
able to overcome it.

- - Just a brief comment... so what if it's classified as a religion? Right
now cryonic preservation is illegal in many democratic countries and has been
challenged in the U.S. If a cryonics/transhumanist related organisation were
to be deemed (even against its will) as a bonified religion, wouldn't that
provide constitutional protection to the freezed and 'awantin' to be frozen
folk ? I definitely don't want my innards frozen out because some county
sheriff or public figure is aspiring for higher grounds or has some kind of
grudge to bare to the media. Forgive my ignorance, but wouldn't the "rumor
of religion" have a benefit to it - - even though "religion" to many of us
goes against our basic principal as "technology" not the "supernatural" as
saviour... Must of us are pragmatists and utilitarians, aren't we ?